As Palmdale Grapples With A Hanging Death, Locals Recall The Area's Racist History
The Antelope Valley's decades of entrenched racism have helped fuel the outcry over the death of 24-year-old Robert Fuller, a Black man found hanging from a tree in Palmdale, Calif., earlier this month.
Neo-Nazis and skinheads have lurked in the area for decades, and for years L.A. County officials — in collusion with Sheriff's deputies — were systematically discriminating against Black people.
Black renters receiving federal Section 8 housing assistance were calling Mitchell, telling him they were being harassed by sheriff's deputies.
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Black people still overwhelmingly occupy Section 8 housing in the Antelope Valley region, according to data from the L.A. County Development Authority.
In 2015, the Justice Department formally accused the L.A. County Housing Authority and the Sheriff's Department of working together to discriminate against Black Section 8 residents in the hopes of driving them out of the Valley.
